Mercedes boss says Vance doesn’t need UAW

Tuesday

Sep 10, 2013 at 11:00 PMSep 10, 2013 at 11:28 PM

A top Daimler executive who helped lead the effort to bring Mercedes-Benz’s only U.S. auto plant to Tuscaloosa County 20 years ago said Tuesday that he sees no reason for a union at the plant in Vance.

By Patrick RupinskiBusiness Editor | The Tuscaloosa News

A top Daimler executive who helped lead the effort to bring Mercedes-Benz’s only U.S. auto plant to Tuscaloosa County 20 years ago said Tuesday that he sees no reason for a union at the plant in Vance.Andreas Renschler, who oversaw the construction of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International in Vance and served as the auto assembly plant’s first president and CEO, is the latest official to speak out against a unionization effort by the United Auto Workers.Renschler, now head of all car production for Mercedes, told journalists at the Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany that there’s no need for a union or a German-style workers’ council — a type of union that helps manage Mercedes plants in Germany. “We just don’t need it,” Renschler was quoted by Reuters, a news service.“The governor of Alabama (Robert Bentley) said himself that he doesn’t want factories oriented towards trade unions. Workers are happy because they have direct access to management.” Renschler said he was “no fan” of seeing a union in Vance, where Mercedes has undertaken a major expansion that will add C-Class sedan production next year and then a fifth model to its production lineup after that. Renschler, like other Mercedes officials, said, however, that company management would remain neutral on the unionization effort and leave the union decision to its Vance workers.The United Auto Workers has targeted auto assembly plants and automotive suppliers in the South in a major union drive that was announced in 2011.It is trying to get Mercedes employees in Vance to sign cards calling for a union election.The UAW has seen mixed results in its unionization drive during the past two years in Tuscaloosa County. Last year, it succeeded in organizing employees at a Johnson Controls plant and a Faurecia plant, both in Cottondale.But last month, workers at the Faurecia plant at Tuscaloosa’s Airport Industrial Park rejected the union. Both Faurecia and Johnson Controls make automotive components.The UAW’s leadership has said it sees the South as a ripe area for unionization. Some critics of the union effort have said the UAW has targeted the Southern auto industry in an effort to stay relevant after seeing its membership decline dramatically during the past several decades.The UAW saw its membership peak at about 1.5 million members in 1979. It reported 382,500 members in 2012, a slight increase from the previous year.West Alabama’s auto industry is not the only area in the South seeing an organizing push by the UAW, which is receiving backing from IG Metall, the giant German industrial union.News reports this month indicated the UAW has approached Volkswagen officials about allowing a workers’ council at its plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. That report riled elected Republican officials in Tennessee, who said a foothold would make it more difficult for them to recruit new industry to the state.Bentley and some Alabama officials have made similar comments.In July, Dara Longgrear, executive director of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority, told The Tuscaloosa News that if the UAW succeeds in organizing Mercedes — one of the state’s largest private employers with about 3,000 workers — it would dramatically hurt efforts to bring more jobs to the state.“It would be a tremendous blow for what people like me work for — for what I have worked for for 35 years. That’s recruiting industries with good-paying jobs,” he said.